It sure is a beautiful pipe.
Al, when you have some time, would you please educate some of us (me) on what you mean by "Coronation grade?" thanks.
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Al, when you have some time, would you please educate some of us (me) on what you mean by "Coronation grade?" thanks.
It's the grade of the pipe. It's up there on the grading scale,I think there is only four higher grades. Summa Cum Laude being the highest grade of Charatan and very rare. Boils down to the grain/cost of the pipe
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Ok, got it.It's the grade of the pipe. It's up there on the grading scale,I think there is only four higher grades. Summa Cum Laude being the highest grade of Charatan and very rare. Boils down to the grain/cost of the pipe
Thanks, Larry for the info.
It's a high-quality and very rare piece. As you've already been told, you have to see a lot of Charatans to see one of that grade. The higher grades fall into the legendary category and are almost never seen.
This is a good description of the ascending Charatan grades. I was fortunate to be able to speak with Dennis Conga at multiple East coast shows. He's known as "Mr Charatan". He always had a grade selection of grades available at his table. This is on the Al Pascia website:
The Summa Cum Laude has an intriguing story attached to it.It's the grade of the pipe. It's up there on the grading scale,I think there is only four higher grades. Summa Cum Laude being the highest grade of Charatan and very rare. Boils down to the grain/cost of the pipe
Only a small number, maybe 10 or so, were made.
One was gifted to the cellist Pablo Casals, who promptly put a match to it.
Herman Lane kept the rest of them at his NYC apartment. When he passed away they all disappeared, and nobody knows what happened to them.
I’ve seen a couple of Coronations and they are amazing to see, large pipes with perfectly even tight straight grain. Not a flaw anywhere.
Well, somebody knows.
Some junkie probably has passed them out to his friends and their being used as crack pipes...........
If someone knows, they ain’t talking.
All these decades later, not one has shown up.
Well, I don’t smoke them very often.
Worked on a Coronation, I did.
Amazing piece of wood, it was.
Lots of close up pics here:
Amazing piece of wood, it was.
Lots of close up pics here:
When I look at the direction and design of that grain, I am impressed with how much forethought must have gone into a) the selection of that particular piece of briar and b) how to start cutting on it to keep the structure of the pipe true to that grain and maximizing the display of same.
George, what work did you exactly do on this pipe?
George, what work did you exactly do on this pipe?
Are you serious???
I know they wanted a swappable stem but it doesn't seem as though the shank comes out of the bowl at enough of an angle..... Guess it would work.
I can just see some Neanderthal going into a pipe shop with a big, beautiful, work of art pipe and asking "Can you make it smaller?"Why did I even ask...............................
George made a replacement stem for it. The original stem was in perfect condition, but the shaping and bend were not the best, to put it politely. To Charatan, the stem was an afterthought. The pipe's owner was not thrilled with the stem, so he asked George to make him a replacement. The only difference between the original and the one that George made is that George's shaping, and the quality of the Vulcanite, are several orders of magnitude better.